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Wednesday, December 18, 2013

No more metadata for you: US judge orders NSA to stop spying on people’s calls

In
what looks to be a major setback for the NSA’s mass surveillance of
telephone metadata, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon has ordered the spy
agency to stop collecting U.S. citizen’s mobile phone records, and to
destroy the files it already holds.
Judge Leon’s ruling comes in the wake of a case brought against the
U.S. Government by an individual named Larry Klayman, who sued it
following revelations about the NSA’s surveillance from whistleblower
Edward Snowden, reports Politico magazine.
According to Judge Leon, the NSA’s bulk collection of telephone
metadata is unconstitutional, and it should desist immediately. Judge
Leon then ordered an injunction preventing the NSA from collecting any
more phone records, before ordering it to delete any information
collected on the two plaintiffs in the case. However, this decision was
immediately stayed pending any appeal the U.S. government might bring.
Judge Leon’s ruling was met with widespread approval from civil liberties groups:

“Congress and the White House have refused to take action
to stop the NSA from indiscriminately tracking the phone calls of most
Americans, and so our federal courts are our last chance to stop the
Obama administration from shredding the Constitution,” said Michael
Kieschnick, CEO of CREDO Mobile told SiliconANGLE.
“As the CEO of a mobile phone company, I applaud action by the
federal courts to begin to rein in this vacuum-cleaner approach to the
private information of innocent Americans.”

Meanwhile, ex-NSA contractor Snowden, now living in Russia, applauded the judge’s decision to issue the injunction.

“I acted on my belief that the NSA’s mass surveillance
programs would not withstand a constitutional challenge, and that the
American public deserved a chance to see these issues determined by open
courts,” Snowden said in a statement to The New York Times.

Metadata reveals too much

Today’s case centers on something called telephone ‘metadata’, rather
than actual records of people’s calls. The NSA doesn’t listen in on
what people are actually saying, but it does gather information on the
people you call, the times of your calls, your location, carrier and
more.
Judge Leon said that the case has a historic precedent of sorts,
citing the Smith v. Maryland ruling in 1979, noted Ars Technica. In that
case, it was ruled that information about the phone numbers people have
called is not private, instead being classified as “business records”,
hence law enforcement can collect this data without a warrant.
The NSA might have hoped that the same logic would apply to metadata too, but Judge Leon said that wasn’t the case.

“I cannot imagine a more ‘indiscriminate’ and ‘arbitrary
invasion’ than this systematic and high-tech collection and retention of
personal data on virtually every single citizen for purposes of
querying it and analyzing it without judicial approval,” said Judge
Leon.

Explaining his decision, Judge Leon said that Smith v. Maryland
predates the capabilities of the average smartphone today. The metadata
collected by the NSA can tell it far more about a person, their
activities, and who they’re connected too, than just the numbers of who
they’ve called.

“The main thrust of the government’s argument here is
that under Smith, no one has an expectation of privacy, let alone a
reasonable one, in the telephony metadata that telecom companies hold as
business records; therefore, the Bulk Telephony Metadata Program is not
a search,” said Judge Leon in his statement. “I disagree.”

The judge’s ruling was issued just before White House press secretary
Jay Carney made his daily press briefing. Carney said he was unaware of
the decision and he referred inquiries to the Justice Department, which
announced that it’s “reviewing the court’s decision,” reports Politico.